A plant by plant harvester is provided. Depending on the use, the device may also be called a ‘plant by plant small plot harvester’. The harvester may be an autonomous device capable of harvesting and analyzing single or double rows of crop spaced as narrow as six inches apart. Further, the harvester may harvest cops as close as one inch apart within the same row. The autonomous single or double row harvester has a main frame supported by a plurality of wheels and/or tracks. The single row harvester may have a first and a second guide unit which surrounds a single row of a crop and directs the single row of the crop into a sheller, picker, or grain/fruit separation unit. In an alternative embodiment of the device, the device may harvest two rows of crops at the same time. In that embodiment, the harvester has a third guide unit. A GPS or any other location positioning device having an antenna is secured to the top of the main frame and allows the harvester to be remotely controlled. As part of the separation process, a hopper, container or holding bin may, in real-time, calculate the weight of the separated products. A plurality of sensors may be located on or near the first and/or second guide unit which allows the harvester to, for example, capture data related to the crop at the single plant level. Further, the autonomous single or double row plot harvester may gauge the strain of the crop and sense cob or grain/seed/fruit separation release pressure.
Over the years, attempts have been made to provide a harvester which can accurately harvest a single row of crops. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,166 to Scott discloses a single head grape and raisin harvester having a single driven oscillating shaker head mounted on a sub-frame enabling the shaker head to center itself on the row of grape vines being harvested. The single row harvester is also provided with a stretchable conveyor belt mounted on interconnected plastic chain links for reliably transporting grapes or raisins to an elongated discharge conveyor which is positioned transversely when collecting and discharging grapes from the harvester into trucks or boxes and is pivoted parallel to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle when moving along roadways.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,162 to Bettencourt discloses a single-row tomato harvester. A tractor fully supported on its own wheels, has its wheels being spaced apart sufficiently to bridge a previously harvested bed and ride in its furrows. The tractor has its own hydraulic pump, a power take-off unit along the tractor's longitudinal centerline, and a rigid draw bar at its rear. A harvester assembly having no motive power is partially supported on wheels spaced apart widthwise at substantially the same distance as those of the tractor and has a series of hydraulically powered means. The harvester is offset by one bed from the tractor during harvesting. A tongue pivotally attached at one end to the harvester and the other end to said tractor, supports a hydraulic pump for operating the harvester's series of powered means. A longitudinally rigid drive line, swivel mounted to said pump's rotary shaft and to the tractor's power take-off unit, has telescoping means for automatically lengthening and shortening it. The drive line lies along the centerline of the tractor during the offset harvesting. A hydraulically powered generally horizontal cylinder-piston apparatus is pivotally attached at one end to said tongue and at the other end to the harvester for shifting the relative lateral position of the harvester assembly to the tractor.
Still further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,614 to Williamson discloses a harvester adapted for harvesting low-lying fruit, such as typical with high-density, dwarf trees, includes an intra-loop conveyor for collecting detached fruit relatively close to the ground and elevating same with a single flighted belt. The harvester straddles a single row of the trees and detaches the fruit therefrom by repeatedly impacting the tree canopies are the harvester moves along the row. Spring-loaded deflection plates close around the tree trunks and deflect detached fruit outwardly to interior surfaces of a pair of single-loop conveyors. Baffles cooperating with the interior of each conveyor restrains fruit therein as the conveyor passes overhead to an inverted position. Fruit is discharged from the conveyor elevated segment onto an output conveyor passing beneath the discharge area. The output conveyor includes a multi-segment, foldable conveyor frame over which a single conveyor belt is entrained. The conveyor belt may be folded over the harvester during non-harvesting transport. Canopy-impacting tines function as fruit detachment devices, and are rotatably driven in a single plane with both constant rotational and oscillatory rotational components of motion. The constant component is synchronized with vehicle forward speed to permit unimpeded feeding of trees through the harvester. The superimposed oscillatory component causes tines to sharply impact tree canopies for detaching fruit therefrom. Both the amplitude and frequency of such impacting action may be varied.
However, these patents fail to describe an autonomous single or double row harvester which is easy to use and efficient. Further, these patents fail to describe an autonomous single or double row harvester which may provide real-time data to a user with respect to each specific plant harvested at the plant level.